Karnataka Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai said that he will be speaking to External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar and Indian embassy officials in Ukraine in an effort to recover and bring the body of Naveen, a native of Haveri who died in Kharkiv, Ukraine. He also said that compensation to the family of the deceased student will be announced later
“We are in touch with the embassy. Our first priority is to bring the body back. We will be making serious efforts in this regard,” he told mediapersons in Bengaluru on March 2. He said that Naveen’s friends, who were with him, have sent some photographs after the shelling stopped.
“The photo has to be confirmed... We will do whatever is possible. Recovery of body is important. We will announce compensation later since that is in our hands. Our focus is on helping the family.”
He said that information about another injured person is being verified.
Mr. Bommai said that the State Government is trying to evacuate as many Kannadigas as possible over the next three days as 26 aircraft will be operating under directions from the Centre. “Evacuation is being attempted from different directions. It is also difficult to evacuate people from a war zone.”
On the Congress criticism of the handling of the situation, the Chief Minister said that the opposition party indulges in politics even in war as people’s plight is not important for them.
